Spawning Monsters with Qlear - How MMORPGs can Benefit from The Trust Machine

In previous blog posts, we discussed how Qlear uses the Plasma framework and Multi-Party Computation networks to allow for a secure real-time gaming experience on the blockchain, with throughput capabilities comparable to centralized server systems.

While it is relatively easy to see how Qlear’s gaming contracts can execute the mechanics of games such as Poker, Chess, or RNG-based gambling; our promise to make MMORPGs and eSports more secure and transparent strikes many as surprising. After all, shuffling cards and verifying moves is one thing, navigating an Avatar through a fully immersive 3D fantasy world is a completely different story.

And indeed, the rendering of graphically complex environments, including their game-universe specific physics and dynamics isn’t a job for a blockchain, and probably never will be. How these universes are created and kept in sync across multi-participant networks is a science in its own right that keeps on evolving constantly. Nevertheless, under the mesmerizing hood of any MMORPG, RTS, and what have you, all games are essentially logical structures that can be described mathematically in terms of states that evolve over time.

In theory, given that aesthetics are covered by a classical server-client arrangement, the state of any game can be abstracted to a level of complexity that isn’t radically different from a poker table at full occupancy. This is especially true if we keep in mind that the code describing a game’s state has several elements, some of them more trust sensitive than others. At Qlear, we’re mainly interested in the most trust-sensitive components among them.

When it comes to MMORPG tournaments, these include among other things the locations at which monsters, minions, and other non-player entities are spawned, the hiding place of valuable items and their specific attributes and so forth. Since it is relatively hard to cheat in front of a live audience, any malevolent party seeking to compromise the outcome of an eSports match would probably choose these supposedly randomly generated items as their attack vector of choice. Luckily, securing the integrity of elements of this sort exactly is also what Qlear specializes in.

With the International Olympic Committee discussing to adopt eSports as an Olympic category, and eSport prize pools already reaching an aggregated amount of $78,095,470, spawning monsters has become a serious business that shouldn’t be left at the mercy of whomever is running the show.

Nonetheless, there is more.

Game universes are packed to the brim with virtual goods, including anything from funny hats to massive weapons and magic potions. While these items may be virtual in nature, their value is anything but imaginary.

Depending on scarcity and utility, the value of some virtual goods can easily surpass the mean income in an industrialized nation. Meanwhile, the creation, curation, and refinement of these goods do already provide some entrepreneurs with a decent income.

For the time being, gaming specific goods live in the confines of their respective platforms. However, as with any digital good and store of value, blockchain technology would allow them to break free and gain a life of their own, allowing even more complex markets to be born. Qlear can easily accommodate for that while opening the possibility of moving and trading objects and accessories between games.

It will probably take a while until an immersive universe such as the Oasis form Ready Player One eats up the world, but when it does we at Qlear will be more than willing to secure its assets and provide it with the security and integrity it deserves.

If you want to learn more about how Qlear helps developers and protects consumers, stay tuned here, follow us on Twitter, and join us on Discord.